‘Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey’ review: Rousing follow-up to Oscar winner ‘My Octopus Teacher’

Dir: Pippa Ehrlich. South Africa, UK. 2025. 89mins

With their covering of scales, long tongues and the habit of walking on their hind legs, pangolins are cute and curious. This winning combination makes for a fascinating choice of documentary subject, especially as few films have been made about them. By focusing on a single animal, as she did with her Oscar-winning My Octopus Teacher, Pippa Ehrlich offers an intimate and gripping fight-back story that eloquently reminds us of the importance of the connection between humans and the natural world.

Even more crowdpleasing than ’My Octopus Teacher’

Nobody is sure how many of the endangered mammals are left in the wild. What is certain is that they are highly trafficked for Chinese medicine and, if rescued, rehabilitating them isn’t easy. Ehrlich follows baby pangolin Kulu as he is rewilded by South African volunteer Gareth Thomas – a job that is, essentially, 24/7 for six months and a lot more besides. 

As with Ehrlich’s previous film, this is a story of the relationship between a human and an animal, but here the focus is much more animal-centric, which makes it, arguably, even more crowdpleasing than My Octopus Teacher. Premiering at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival,  it should attract a wide audience when it released by Netflix on April 21.

Pangolins have been pottering about the earth for about 85 million years, which makes it appropriate that Ehrlich employs a mythic element. We hear that in many Southern African stories, it is believed that pangolins trigger thunder by rattling their scales. Described as being like both “unicorns” and “ghosts”, all the contributors, though working with pangolins for years, note that they have never just happened across one in the wild. 

The ability of pangolins to go quietly about their business makes looking after one tricky, as Gareth quickly discovers. Pangolins won’t simply eat ants and termites from a plate, they need to forage for them, so the rehabilitation programme involves Gareth chaperoning Kulu in the daytime before taking him inside at night. The pair head to the Lapalala wildlife reserve in South Africa’s Limpopo province, where Gareth, who describes himself as “a helicopter parent”  initially has a hard time keeping up with his scaly friend, who immediately attempts to run away. 

In fact, Kulu was originally named Kigima, which means “run” in Zulu; Gareth changes it to Kulu, from the word for “easy”, in the hopes it might rub off on the animal, although he ruefully notes it doesn’t. This is one of the few moments of anthropomorphisation in a film, which is all the better for not succumbing to the Disneyfication of the animals. 

Gareth has a difficult job, in that he has to gain Kulu’s trust so that he can help him but, at the same time, he knows the goal is for the pangolin to gain enough weight to return to the wild. Among the potential dangers are the electric fences used to separate wild animals from livestock and we hear how, in one near-miss event, Gareth threw himself between a fence and the pangolin only to give Kulu a shock himself. One of the documentary’s strengths is that Gareth is also one of its cinematographers, so he is able to capture close- quarters footage without disturbing Kulu. Ehrlich also makes us aware of the risk Gareth sometimes puts himself at, whether it’s getting stuck in burrows making sure Kulu is safe or looking for him after dark when big cats are more bold. 

Beyond the beautiful footage of Kulu, his scales sparkling in water or glowing in the magic hour light, there is also plenty of appreciation of the handsome Lapalala landscape and the other creatures that live there, enhanced by Anne Nitikin’s atmospheric score. While the film is peppered with pangolin facts, we also meet ant specialist Dr Caswell Munyai, who talks about the fine equilibrium that exists between them and the pangolins – and who also teaches us termites have a trick or two up their sleeves. 

Although containing dramatic moments, it’s Gareth’s emotional connection to Kulu that is the film’s heartbeat. While we, like Gareth, hope Kulu will soon vanish back into the wild, Ehrlich also makes us aware of the frightening possibility that our lack of action could see all his kind completely vanish from the Earth.